Personal Demons
by xXRavonXx
Summary: Prue learns what might haved happened if instead of her dying and Paige coming she lived and they never learned of Paige.


_This story is set after series three and disregards series four and five. Prue's survival is explained_

_An unusual silence rocked the Halliwell manor. Prue slept uncomfortably and with the nightmare of Shax recurring once more; Piper was busy happily baking cookies and Phoebe was off with Cole in Italy for the weekend._

_Piper was engrossed in the smell her delectable creations were emitting from the oven and the gooey dough that clung persistently to her fingers. She sniffed at the heavily scented air as she played a game with the remaining dough. She was rolling it into small balls then throwing it in the air and freezing it and trying to see how many balls she could get up there before the first unfroze. Her record at the time was around twenty five as the dough was sticky and took time to launch off her hand._

_A loud buzz made her jump out of her skin and caused all twenty five dough balls to unfreeze and land on her head. If she did not have flour on her face, the balls would have stuck to her._

_"Oh!" She mumbled._

_Her cookies had finished baking and the oven had buzzed when the timer ran out. She pulled on her oven mitts and, smiling, pulled the tray from the oven's warmth and placed it on a pot stand on the counter._

_"What's going on down here?" Prue grumbled as she wiped sleep from her eyes. As she beheld the scene before her, she spoke convolutedly. "Piper, its two a.m., what are you doing baking?"_

_"I was hungry and then I though Leo might want something when he comes home, so I made cookies. Want one?" She said as she picked up a cookie and tossed it from hand to hand in between small nibbles. "Chocolate chip, and very hot."_

_"Mm," Prue said loudly upon noticing the rumble in her stomach. "I'm starved." She snatched up two cookies and before Piper could protest, greedily shoved them both, whole, into her mouth._

_"You weren't kidding." Piper laughed._

_"Nope." Prue said as she sprayed crumbs everywhere._

_"Prue!" Piper raised her voice disapprovingly. _

_"Sorry." Came the reply, along with another shower of cookie._

_"Gr." Piper muttered holding her hands out towards Prue's neck._

_Prue giggled quietly, despite herself._

_"Sorry Piper, just, so hungry." Prue giggled._

_All of a sudden, Cole and Phoebe shimmered into the kitchen; Phoebe screaming._

_"Demon! Demon!" Making Prue jump. Piper chuckled to herself for her revenge._

_"Where?" Prue said spinning on the spot with her hand at the ready to throw any demons into a wall._

_"In Italy, Prue." Phoebe assured her sister._

_"Oh, right." Prue replied embarrassedly._

_"What happened?" Piper asks as a look of concern washed across her face._

_"Big, fiery demon. Partially flame, could throw fire balls, very much like a Shax look-a-like except for the whole fire thing." Phoebe described the attacker with vague detail. "We should go check the book."_

_Moments later, up in the attic, the sisters crowded around the pedestal flipping through the Book of Shadows, while Cole paced impatiently across the room, with confused thoughts running through his head._

_Was it him? Are they real? Oh God, Phoebe. The assassins._

_"Anything?" Cole said anxiously turning to the witches. "Have you tried assassins?"_

_"Assassins? Cole do you know who that was?" Phoebe asked, gripping her husband's upper arm tightly._

_"I have an idea." He confessed. All eyes turned to him. "An assassin. An elemental assassin. Shax was one of them, there are three more. Fire, water and earth."_

_"So we vanquish them. Nice and easy and can be done before dawn?" Piper asked hopefully._

_"Not if they come together. Shax came alone because the Source told him to because keeping the other three as trump cards where no one knew about them. He would have otherwise come with the other three." Cole explained gravely._

_"Great, so more demon fun for the charmed ones." Phoebe said sarcastically._

_"I can't find them in the Book." Prue announced, before the pages started flipping on their own._

_"Thanks Grams." Phoebe called to the ceiling. _

_"'The elements'," Prue read aloud from the page. "'The four elements work together to balance the forces in the world. When one element is broken the others will become unbalanced; some stronger, others weaker. To reinstate the balance, all elements must be equal.' And there's a picture."_

_"What the hell does that mean?" Piper spoke loudly. _

_"It means we have to vanquish the last three to balance the forces." Prue concluded. "Until then, some will be stronger or weaker. How does that work?"_

_"It's in the picture in the Book," said Cole peering over at the page. "You vanquished air, which means, earth is stronger and fire weaker."_

_"What about water." Piper asked._

_"It's not affected by air." Cole explained. "But why the weakest attacked is beyond me?"_

_"Maybe they are testing us, to get a better idea of how strong we are." Prue offered._

_"Maybe, but its unlikely." Cole said. "Maybe Leo could help."_

_"Could do. Leo!" Piper yelled._

_Leo appeared in a shower of fluorescence..._

_"Hello all." He said before hugging and kissing Piper. "What's going on?"_

_"Cole and I were attacked in Italy. We were in Pompeii on Mount Vesuvius when suddenly some fiery demon appeared and attacked." Phoebe explained._

_"How did he appear? Flame in, shimmer, smoke?" Leo asked._

_"He flamed in." Phoebe performed an explosive action with her arms._

_Fire suddenly appeared in a corner of the attic, and quickly a demon that was red skinned, looked like Shax and was partially on fire formed and threw a fire ball at Piper who froze, both the demon and ball._

_"Like that." Phoebe shouted backing up to her sisters. "How do we vanquish it?"_

_"Power of three." Prue supplied. "Pheebs can you modify the Shax vanquish?"_

_"Um, maybe." Phoebe started. _

_The demon unfroze and the fireball flew over Piper's shoulder and scorched a wall._

_"Damn it." Piper said, as she threw up her hands and blew up the demon. _

_"Why do I not think its dead?" Prue asked rhetorically._

_"Because if he's anything like Shax, he isn't." Piper declared. "Leo, what do you know about the elemental assassins?"_

_"Well, they were only rumored to exist, but I guess this proves them real... According to the rumors, with Shax gone-"_

_"Yeah, we know that part. How do we vanquish them?" Prue interrupted._

_"Um. I don't know." Leo said. "Maybe if you modified the Shax vanquish like you suggested._

_"Ok. Here goes. Flame of evil end your burn, from whence you came you'll now return. No longer shall you dwell, death takes you with this spell." Phoebe attempted remembering the Shax vanquishing spell. "That ok?"_

_"Sounds good." Piper said._

_"Yeah, give it a shot when Werek returns." Leo said, content with the spell Phoebe created._

_Hours passed and eventually, dawn came. Prue, shattered from her nightmare and having got up so early, decided to nap on the sofa while the others happily ate Piper's cookies as they waited for Werek to return. For a long while, Prue lay with her eyes open, thinking through the events of Shax's attack; remembering every little detail of what happened after Shax threw her and Piper through the window. Gradually, sleep stole over her, and no matter how hard she fought, she drifted off with the image of Shax still in her mind._

_His blue face contorted in hatred for her sister and herself. His long, grey-blue hair caught in the wind he himself had created, caused an intense déja vu that she could not quite place._

_She felt a look of surprise and fear flow across her face then found she knew what was about to come. His arm flung out and a bolt of air hit her and she herself fly across the room and the shards of glass shatter around her as splinters of wood stabbed into her. She landed with a thud that was echoed as Piper landed alongside her. Everything went hazy and the last sound she heard was the Doctor's scream as Shax killed him._

_The next thing she sensed was a feeling of abnormality. What ever was happening wasn't the due course of reality. She felt a deep instinctual truth, what was happening was wrong._

_A golden glow filled her vision and slowly faded to reveal Leo and Phoebe crouching over her. Lifting her head she saw Leo had one hand over both her and Piper, healing them both simultaneously. She lifted herself with her arms to sit up amongst the mess. Looking around, she saw Piper next to her sitting up looking disoriented. Suddenly, like memories of a dream, it all rushed back to her. She threw her self up and held out her hand to fend off Shax._

_"Where are Shax and the doctor?" She said hurriedly. "We have to save the doctor."_

_Leo stood up and took her arm._

_"Prue, the doctor's dead. Shax threw you and Piper through the window then left." _

_"Well then, in that case we have to vanquish Shax anyway." Prue continued, now seeking revenge._

_"Yes you do, but first you have to summon him here or it won't work. He's done, he won't come back." Leo explained._

_"Right, let's do this here and now. Phoebe, can you summon Shax?" Prue stated her position with determination and in a tone that denied any argument._

_"I guess, I could just modify the spell to summon Cole."_

_"Just make sure you get Shax, not Cole." Piper said now having gained her bearings._

_"Ok. Do it." Prue instructed._

_"Here goes. Magic forces black and white, reaching out through space and light, the evil wind be it near or far, come to us from where you are.." Phoebe chanted._

_A floor to ceiling column of swirling wind appeared before them and soon Shax stood there, growling at them._

_"Hi." Piper said, as she threw up her hand and froze the demon. _

_"Evil wind that blows that which forms below, no longer shall you dwell, death takes you with this spell." The three sisters chorused the spell in perfect unison._

_Shax unfroze and writhed in pain for a moment before letting out a final angry roar and exploding, vanquished for good._

_"Prue." Piper screamed as she grabbed her sister's arm, shaking it violently._

_"What is it Piper?" Prue inquired, confused over her sisters apparent fear._

_"Prue!" Piper screamed again._

_Prue's eyes snapped open and saw Werek standing in the doorway._

_"Ah!" She yelled as the fire assassin threw a fire ball at her._

_Prue covered her head with her arms, expecting to get seriously hurt within milliseconds._

_The fireball incinerated the sofa and Prue was gone._

_"Prue!" Phoebe and Piper cried out, having just witnessed their sister leave them as the fireball hit._

_"You are so dead!" Piper screamed out as she focused all her power into blowing up Werek. He yelled blue-murder as he turned to ashes and vanished._

_Piper collapsed to her knees and Leo bent down and pulled her to him, Phoebe grabbed Cole and hugged him tightly as tears ran down her face._

_"That was cool." A voice from the doorway to the hall said gleefully._

_"Prue?" Piper looked up and saw her sister standing with a huge grin across her face,_

_"Prue. How did you?" Phoebe started._

_"I don't know. I saw the fireball coming and just thought, 'anywhere but here' and this pink light appeared and suddenly I was in the attic." The, catching onto the grief on her sisters' faces. "Who died?"_

_Despite Prue being very much alive, tears still moistened Piper's face, but she laughed anyway. Prue was fine, Werek dead, and the sisters still together._

_"You. We thought. The fireball, you were gone." She ran and hugged her sister and Phoebe joined in. "Don't die again, ok?" She told Prue. "For those few seconds I thought we'd lost the strong one. I thought we'd have to live without you."_

_Minutes passed before Prue broke the hug and spoke to Leo. _

_"How did I do that? Was it a new power?"_

_"Maybe. I'll go upstairs and check." He orbed out relieved he hadn't lost Prue._

_"Cole, honey. Could you go see what you can find out, just in case this power is demonic." Phoebe asked sweetly but with a serious tone._

_"Sure," Cole looked at Prue. "Good to still have you Prue." He said as he shimmered out._

_"So anyway, Piper. You should know no demon can stop me." Prue said smugly to her shaken sister._

_"Prue, all I can say is that I'm really happy you're alive."_

_"Me too." Phoebe stated happily._

_"How did you vanquish Werek in the end?" Prue asked upon realizing that Werek was not there._

_"Piper blew him up. Real powerful blast too." Phoebe said._

_"Yeah. Oh I hated that guy." Piper said recalling the hatred she felt._

_"Ooh, Well done." Prue said approvingly._

_A river of blue light poured from the ceiling and Leo appeared._

_"Great news. Prue, you have a new power."_

_"Ooh, yay." Prue became excited instantly. "What is it?"_

_"Projection." Leo announced._

_"But I can already astral project. What good is this new power?"_

_"No, astral projection leaves your body here, projection sends your entire body, mind and soul to wherever you want to go. Its like orbing except you still can't go up there." Leo explained._

_"Whoa, cool Prue." Phoebe said happy for her sister and fellow witch._

_"Yeah Prue. I expected your next power to be something like flying, properly." Said Piper._

_"I love it." Prue smiled and suddenly became focused. Projecting had felt like astral projection before, she just needed to pull her body with her soul now._

_"What's wrong?" Phoebe asked._

_"I think she's trying to project." Leo whispered._

_Prue suddenly felt herself being pulled to the kitchen. Piper, Phoebe and Leo watched as Prue glowed pink around the edges then disappeared as it went inwards. She appeared to be vanishing from an astral form._

_"Where'd she go?" Piper thought aloud._

_Suddenly Prue returned holding the plate of remaining cookies that Piper had made the night before._

_She giggled to herself._

_"What?" She responded to the looks she was getting from Leo and her sisters. "I was hungry and I needed to test this power."_

_The others smiled and took one cookie each leaving one for Prue._

_Prue took a bite as a ragged looking Cole appeared next to them._

_"Sorry Cole, none left." Prue giggled._

_"Uh, from what I found out before the bounty hunters found me, there are no demons after you."_

_"We know, Leo told us it's a new power, projection." Phoebe said._

_"Oh, good." Cole said. Now I won't have to shimmer you in emergencies."_

_"You don't shimmer me anyway Cole." Prue corrected._

_"I might have done." Cole said defensively._

_"Yeah ok. I'm going to bed." Prue said. _

_"Ooh. So are we." Phoebe said grabbing Cole's collar and running up the stairs._

_"Us too." Leo said to Piper, who smiled as he hugged her and orbed them upstairs. _

_Prue pulled a face then went upstairs._

_Two days had gone by since the attack by Werek. Prue had been practicing with her new power at every opportunity. She had got the hang of it. She sometimes could use project at all and sometimes she reappeared a few meters off her mark but she mostly managed to project instead of astral project. When she astral projected she often got frustrated and confused when she tried to use telekinesis or astral project again. She played about with her powers and practiced thoroughly expecting the other two assassins to appear at any moment. _

_Now it was noon and the sisters and Leo were hanging around in the kitchen. Piper was again baking cookies and freezing time with the dough. Phoebe was having fun levitating and arranging the dough balls into funny formations while Prue moved Phoebe about while she levitated. Leo just stood by laughing at the sisters._

_"You all look like you're having so much fun." Leo said, looking skyward. "This is good because I have to go."_

_"Oh no you don't." Piper said as she froze him._

_"Why did you do that?" Prue asked._

_"So I could do this." Piper replied as she unfroze a few dough balls and caught them, then she squished them together and made a dough beard and moustache and attached them to Leo._

_Phoebe started giggling hysterically at the sight of their whitelighter's new found facial dough. She lowered herself to the floor lest she fell out of the air and held her sides in laughter._

_Piper unfroze Leo and grabbed his arm to stop him orbing out, then told him to look in a mirror._

_Upon seeing his reflection, Leo laughed but quickly recovered his composure._

_"I'd love to stay and play, but they called." Leo said as he orbed out, leaving the dough to fall to the floor._

_Prue lifted the dough off the floor with her power than moved it back into place in the air as a giant ball, where Piper froze it._

_"This is fun." Phoebe said. "It seems like everything has taken on a lighter air, it all seems so much happier."_

_"Yeah." Piper nodded exaggeratedly. "It weird, but fun."_

_When did this game start?" Asked Prue, suddenly intrigued by it._

_"Last night when I made the cookies. I got bored waiting for them to cook so with the dough stuck to my fingers, I shook my hand till it came free and just froze it." Piper explained.._

_"Well it's fun. Especially when you get to move the bits about." Phoebe smiled._

_Leo orbed back in, frantically waving his hand for attention._

_"What's wrong Leo? Mosquitoes?" Piper laughed as she kissed him._

_"No, just wanted attention. Listen. You're all under a spell. The house is under a spell."_

_"Don't be silly Leo. The house can't be under a spell." Phoebe said laughing at the ridiculous notion Leo presented._

_"It is. The elders got word from high up evil that the demon Filandra is the one who hired the assassins to kill you." Leo said sincerely._

_"You're being serious, aren't you?" Prue said, promptly concerned for her sisters._

_"Yes. It explains everything. Why the weakest came first, why they're after you." He continued._

_"If the weakest couldn't kill us, the others become stronger anyway and they can do the job." Piper thought out loud._

_"Exactly." Leo confirmed. "You have to vanquish Filandra, then the assassins should stop as they won't be getting paid for killing you."_

_"Or they could get really annoyed and come for us harder than before because we stopped their payment." Prue supplied._

_"Maybe, but not likely." Leo said._

_"Don't you think we should vanquish the assassins first before Filandra? Just in case they do get annoyed and come for us." Phoebe suggested._

_"I guess - wait a minute." Piper interrupted herself. "What sort of spell is on the house?"_

_"A youth spell." Leo said. "It has to be."_

_"Why?" Prue asked. "Because we all look so young and radiant?"_

_"No." Leo said. This was quickly answered by insulted looks from the girls. "Well you all do normally anyway. I meant because you are all acting like children, and so was I before I left."_

_"Ok then. So we break the spell." Said Phoebe._

_"You'd have to vanquish Filandra." Leo told them._

_"Right. So assassins first." Prue stated. "Do we want to summon them here?"_

_"Uh, we could." Phoebe smiled proudly. "I'm getting good at spells."_

_"No. Lure them into a trap." Piper concluded. "We have to do this on our terms, and turf, but not here. To much to damage, so if we can help it."_

_"We should do it in the forest, tonight." Phoebe said. "No one will see and we can get there and back pretty instantly." She looked at the clock. "And we can do it in about five hours."_

_"I say go for it." Leo smiled._

_"Yeah, great." Piper and Prue agreed._

_"Work on the spells quickly now." Leo instructed. "Then we'll play."_

_The spells were finished quickly as they wanted to play. Phoebe summoned Cole to the house and he instantly succumbed to the spell and joined in the fun freezing game they were playing. He would throw low power energy balls at the dough balls to break them up them Piper would freeze all the pieces and Phoebe had to stick one back together in mid air before Prue managed to do it from the ground._

_Night came after a long while, and Leo was the one to point out that they should be going. When they had all prepared with warm clothes, but highly insensible shoes as usual. Leo pointed out that fact but was dismissed as Piper grabbed his hand, Phoebe rolled into Cole's arms and all five orbed, shimmered and projected to the forest._

_"Ok, shall we just get this over with so we can go home and play, Phoebe said._

_"Right, Leo prepare to heal, Cole prepare to fight." Prue instructed._

_"Lets do it." Piper said._

_"Magic forces black and white, reaching out through space and light, evil water near or far, come to us from where you are." Phoebe sang._

_A pool of water formed on the floor of the forest and from it, growing upwards was a demon that looked just like Shax except that its hair was wet and its eyes glowed bright blue. _

_"Witches." It rumbled in a low voice._

_"Ah." Piper froze it._

_"Evil water that flows that which forms below, no longer shall you dwell, death takes you with this spell."_

_The demon screamed in agony and collapsed into a pool of water on the ground which evaporated swiftly._

_"Next." Piper yelled._

_Before they could even chant the summoning spell for the final demon, a rock protruded out of the ground and the outer parts turned to dust and fell to the floor leaving the demon. It looked like all the others except it was brown and its arms and torso were carved from stone._

_"My strength is greater than yours now." The demon said gruffly._

_"Cole!" Prue screamed._

_Cole threw both hands forward and sent two high power energy balls at the earth assassin, who merely blinked his eyes._

_"Like I said." The demon growled and produced two large rocks that glowed with a brown light. Then it threw the stones straight at Prue._

_Piper let out a yelp and froze the stones and the demon. Prue, once she comprehended the situation, threw the stones back with her power. They hit the demon, who yelled in pain._

_"Damn witches." The demon shouted as he disappeared into the ground._

_"Where'd he go?" Phoebe hollered._

_All five of them spun round in circles looking out for the demon._

_"I'm right here." The voice came from behind Phoebe as two rock arms wrapped around her and started crushing her. He turned to face the others using Phoebe as a shield._

_"Do nothing or the witch will die." He said._

_"Not likely." Prue said as she astral projected herself behind the demon and her sister. She tapped him on the shoulder._

_Piper threw up her hands taking the risk of not blowing Phoebe up and blew up the demon. Rocks flew everywhere, and the witches ran to join hands and chanted the spell as the rocks grew and joined together._

_"Earth is strong but we overcome, what it has done be undone, no longer shall you dwell, death takes you with this spell." They chanted._

_The demon roared and exploded, turning to dust and drifting off on the wind._

_"Should we vanquish Filandra now?" Phoebe asked._

_"No, let me vanquish you!" said the young woman who shimmered into the scene._

_"Ooh, scary." Phoebe replied._

_Prue suddenly had the feeling something was wrong, the same feeling from the dream washed over her. What was wrong with her?_

_Filandra threw an energy ball at Phoebe who levitated over it then out of her forehead a small bolt of translucent white light issued forth and hit Filandra. Filandra stumbled back and tripped. Phoebe landed. _

_"Cool! A very active power." She squealed. "But so close to Prue's."_

_"Pheebs, how did you do that?" Piper yelled as she froze Filandra._

_"I just felt the need to attack and a power surge coursed through my head and just shot out. A psychic bolt?" Phoebe asked Leo after explaining what just happened._

_"I think so. The elders told me they though you and Piper would get new powers soon as well as Prue." Leo confessed._

_"But so close together?" Prue inquired._

_"You're all advancing faster than usual because of need and experience." Leo supplied. "Maybe the Shax thing affected you all somehow."_

_Filandra, still feeling dazed, unfroze and stood up._

_"What was that?" She asked rhetorically as she threw two more energy bolts, this time and Piper and Prue. Prue deflected them and they broke a tree. It fell slowly at first, but then sped up. Piper screamed and moved twenty feet away from the tree in an instant; the others did not even see her move._

_"What the hell was that?" Piper yelled._

_"You blinked!" Prue accused._

_"No, I ran." Piper defended her self, taken aback at the prospect of her being a warlock. Once again she froze the demon, who had just released two more energy balls._

_"She has a new power!" Phoebe squealed. "So quickly. I only just got mine."_

_"Leo, this is happening too fast. What's going on?"_

_I'm not sure, but I know it definitely ties in with her other powers. I don't think she sped up time though. That power would make her die faster. It could be super speed." Leo put forward. _

_"Cool, well, lets vanquish this cow." Piper said slightly disturbed that there was a possibility her power could kill her faster._

_The sisters held hands._

_"The youthful demon in our midst, to her darkness we say this, vanish now your cunning and sly, death takes you in the blink of an eye."_

_Filandra unfroze and fire engulfed her and disappeared with her in moments._

_Back at the manor everyone sat down on the sofa, having returned to normal now the spell was broken. The atmosphere was very relaxed but happy, a fire burned emitting a warm orange glow that engulfed the room in a quiet bliss. They spoke about the game Piper had invented two nights ago, when the spell had first set in._

_"Well, I don't know about you guys, but I'm tired. Leo, coming to bed?" Piper asked slyly._

_"Mm. Yeah." Leo said picking her up and orbing then upstairs._

_"Bed sounds fun." Phoebe said turning to Cole._

_"Why, Phoebe." Cole said kissing her and shimmering them to her room._

_"I guess I'll do the same." Prue said, as she focused and tried to project herself to bed, but failed. "That's it powers, one more try or I'm using the stairs." Prue threatened her powers. This last time they worked._

_On the other side of the projection, she opened her eyes, to see her Patty and Penny smiling at her. The white glowing clouds rolled around gently and Prue regained her bearings. The memories came back to her and she smiled. _

_"Honey," Patty said sweetly, in the voice Prue could finally hear freely. "You did it. You faced up to death and dealt well."_

_"Well done my dear." Penny congratulated her granddaughter. "You're ready to live on the other side."_

_"Yeah. Thanks Grams, Mum. That dream really helped. I've got to thank the elders when I see them. I didn't like being torn from my sisters like that, but I guess it was meant to be. I kept having this feeling, especially in the nightmare of surviving, like it wasn't meant to be." Prue smiled, she had come to terms with her death._

_"That's because it wasn't." Grams reassured her._

_"This is reality, and this is where you're meant to be. You've done your bit. Paige will fill in just perfectly." Her mum told her. _

_"I know," Prue replied. "But I don't get why we all got new powers?"_

_"They were parts of you that you weren't allowed to see; your subconscious. You are now at the level of your subconscious, you could utilize them consciously now." Penny explained._

_"But how does Piper and Phoebe having powers help me?"_

_"They gave you hope for your sisters. They represented Paige. Its been two weeks now Prue, the power of three is reborn. They will still grieve and miss you Prue, as you will them, but they are moving on with life as you should your death." Patty explained. _

_"And I will." Prue said. She felt her spirits rise as she was looking at the prospect of an eternity of bliss now, and eventually her sisters would join her, when they had finished their part of life. 'Yes its true.' Prue thought. 'Life is perfect, as is death.'_


End file.
